Fears in the Dark
by Hakiri
Summary: Sitting around in a dark place, waiting for something to happen makes the mind rattle. Telling stories seems to be a good way to pass the time...
1. Me? I'm not scared! Try me!

'Smooth was the sound of pebbles against water and rough was the sound of light against dark. An echoing silence split the room. A waking nightmare of fears drenched into poor souls' heads and corrupted their view. Not a chance did any have of escaping the demons. One watching owl hooted in desperation as the darkness of the night gripped its feathers with its terrible, haunting arms and…' A boy described.

'No! Naruto! When you said you were going to tell a story, we expected a true story. Stupid!' A girl with pink hair argued. Her bright green eyes were full of annoyance at the yellow-haired boy who sat opposite her, and yet she still felt a slight fear within her of what would happen next.

There was a loud rumble of thunder outside and the trees clawed the windows in terror. Lightning flashed and haunted nature, taunting it with its very wake.

Naruto's face dropped in bore. 'And then the owl and the dark creature danced and danced and then ate some ramen. The end.' He muttered reluctantly. 'And that _is_ true!'

Another boy sat near the argumentative two. His hair was as dark as his eyes and his thoughts wondered far from the strange story that Naruto had concocted.

'Sasuke-kun! What about you? Do you have a story? It _is_ dark at night, and Kakashi-sensei hasn't even arrived yet.' The pink-haired girl asked.

'Sakura-chan! Sasuke's no good at telling stories!' Naruto barked.

'You haven't even _heard_ him tell a story!' Sakura hissed back.

'Well, you can tell it'll be boring anyway.'

'Naruto!'

'Sakura-chan! Why don't _you_ tell us a story?'

Sakura hesitated. Her pink hair wavered about her shoulder as she cleared her throat. She then waved her hands in the air. 'Eh? Me? I-I'm n-no good at telling stories!' She stammered. A tremble awakened in her heart. _But I don't want that idiot Naruto to tell that scary story again… and I don't really want Sasuke-kun to be put under pressure…_ 'A-Actually, I might have a story…'

'Yay! It had better be scary!' Naruto cheered and nodded.

It was getting cold and chills surrounded the three. There was a flickering fire in between them and it shimmered in the wind. Heat hissed from the core of the flame and warmed the air. It was already so dark; you could only see everybody's faces and the parts of their clothes that faced the fire. It was like the rest of them didn't exist, engulfed by the furious darkness.

Sakura nodded shyly, giving a quick glance to Sasuke. 'This story is a t-true story… A-And in my eyes, it's one of the scariest stories I could imagine.' Sakura stuttered. With a gulp, she continued. 'A girl was the age of eleven. Her name was Katani. Many people jeered at her because she was different. She was scared all of the time because of this, and was forced into moving house. Her mother was ill. Her father… she never knew him. She was so alone in this house, all on her own. Her mother spent all of her time in the hospital, and the doctors always reassured her, telling her things that would make her feel better, when they just made her feel worse.'

'What does that have to do with a scary story…?' Naruto murmured, annoyed.

'Naruto!' Sakura screamed, throwing a mound of mud in Naruto's direction. 'I had to listen to _your_ strange, twisted story, now you listen to mine! Anyway, the girl was always so scared of things in the new house. She heard creaks and banging sounds in the night. She would sometimes hide somewhere, but she knew nowhere was safe. The next day, at school, she saw the person that she recognised was her most precious person. This boy's name was Kazenga.'

'What a strange name!' Naruto argued.

Another mound of mud was flung at Naruto. His usual blonde hair turned a horrible brown.

'I made it up on the spot!' Sakura snarled.

'So it isn't a true story!'

'It is!'

'At least use a cool name, like Ramen, or Naruto!'

'What kind of a name is Ramen?'

'A great name!'

Glares were passed from the two.

'Moving on, Kazenga was the most popular boy in the school. Everybody envied him because of that and all the girls adored him. So one day, Katani clenched her fists and took a deep breath and headed to where Kazenga was. She was so scared. She could feel the bubbles of doubt fizzing in her heart. She closed her eyes tight when Kazenga asked her what she was doing. She almost screamed. 'I-I…' She muttered. 'I-I… You're my most precious person!' She shouted, as high as her lungs would let her yell. She then looked around her, and could see the figure moving away from her. Tears fell. Laughter broke out. Everybody taunted her. Jeers were passed from person to person. She hated that day and wished that nothing like that would happen again. She wanted to move house again, but she couldn't. She didn't want to leave Kazenga. And amongst that crowd of laughing people was her most precious person, laughing and laughing at her, making her tears fall, once again.' Sakura said solemnly.

'Eh? What happened to the haunted house?' Naruto asked, confusion rattling his brain.

'I cut that bit out. It would've been too scary for you, Naruto!' Sakura replied with a grin.

'I don't know those two people. Are they really real people?' Naruto questioned.

'Of course not.' Sakura answered. 'I changed the names. I guess parts of it weren't true, but I'd imagine that as the scariest story I could think of.'

There was silence and the rustle of leaves around them shattered it. An eerie silence then formed again.

'I want to tell a scary story!' Naruto shouted, breaking the quiet environment.

'You've already told one!' Sakura replied sharply. Her eyebrows knotted in frustration.

'Fine. Hey Sasuke. Tell a story.' Naruto ordered.

Sasuke looked up at the recognition of his name and saw the other two of his group watching him eagerly, awaiting a story to begin. 'I have no story.' He muttered.

'Dumbasuke.' Naruto commented.

'Oi! Sasuke-kun can tell great stories!' Sakura argued.

Sasuke let out a short sigh. He knew that Kakashi wouldn't turn up at any time soon. He couldn't sense any presence around him, except for the small hum of the insects at work, and even _they_ had been scared away by the pointless arguing from Sakura and Naruto. 'Fine. I have a story, but don't be scared if it's too scary for you.' Sasuke said. 'So whoever feels faint right now can leave. I might as well tell a story. It's not like Kakashi's going to turn up soon. This is my story. There was a faint hum from machinery all around. It was a developed age and everybody had learned to use the valuable resources around them.'

'Machinery? Eh? What's this about?' Naruto asked, confused.

'Na…ru…to! Stop spoiling Sasuke-kun's story!' Sakura screamed, throwing another mound of mud at the poor, confused blonde-haired boy. 'Carry on, Sasuke-kun!'

'As I was saying… Actually, no. To make it more easier to understand, the world has gotten better, and people have managed to make clones, copies of themselves. One day, however, the creator of these clones died in a mysterious accident. Nobody knew what happened to him. Some thought he was suffocated, whilst others thought… others thought he may have been strangled. Nobody really knows what happened to this guy.' Sasuke explained. 'People have investigated the body, but there was one thing that stood out the most.'

Sakura whimpered and shook beside Naruto, gripping a small leaf for dear life. 'I-I…' She breathed. 'N-Never mind. C-Carry on, Sasuke-k-kun.'

'Yes, anyway there was one thing that stood out the most from everything else; something that was so clear, so vivid, that nobody could miss it.' Sasuke described. 'It was something that was so horrible that some people dared not tell a soul about this. And this something was…'


	2. Alternate stories

Naruto let out a yawn, interrupting the rhythm of the story. 'Aw, this is boring. What's so scary about this anyway?' Naruto asked dully.

Sasuke frowned, annoyed at the blonde-haired boy. 'You think you can tell a better story? Tell one, but after I finish mine.' He challenged. 'Anyway, something stood out, like I said. And that was the fact that on his clothes, written in blood was the words… 'Naruto is Stupid.''

'What? That's the dumbest thing anybody would write! Are you sure they didn't write 'Sasuke eats hats'?' Naruto exclaimed angrily.

'What's so scary about me eating hats? Who in their right mind would think I eat hats anyway?' Sasuke replied coolly.

There was silence as the cold breeze brushed past the three's cheeks, giving a tingle of a chill.

'Obviously, everybody would agree on that statement. Naruto truly _is_ stupid!' Sakura sighed whilst folding her arms to escape the icy atmosphere. 'Sasuke-kun, that was a great story.'

Sasuke didn't smile. He just closed his eyes and kept his head down, with his arms tightly folded. 'Naruto, your turn.'

Naruto jumped at those words and a huge grin appeared on his boyish face. He immediately bounced from the spot and stood pointing at Sasuke. 'My story will be ten times scarier than yours! Ten times the scream! Ten times the fright! And ten times louder!' Naruto yelled. His volume had increased with each word. He laughed and sat back down. He then nodded and began the story. 'Long ago, there was a boy Oturan and he was the greatest, the best. Everybody made fun of him, but only because they were jealous, yeah! And then…'

'Hey! Naruto! Oturan is Naruto backwards! You're only talking about yourself!' Sakura stated with vehemence.

'Fine, fine. I'll start again.' Naruto frowned. 'It was a dark and lonely night. There was nothing to watch on TV either… What a boring night it was, and yet still so scary…' Naruto began to make scary noises. 'A fox sat in the middle of the living room. He whimpered and looked around. There were no lights on, and yet he could still see shadows walking around against the usually dull white walls. But in this light, everything seemed an inky black. The fox was alone. Or so he thought, anyway. What was even scarier was that the fox's house was in the middle of nowhere, perched right at the edge of a cliff.'

'Why is his house at the edge of a cliff?' Sasuke asked.

'Hey! Leave questions till the end!' Naruto yelled. 'Anyway, the fox was alone. The house shook. It lost balance… and then… and then… it fell down the deepest of abysses and fell and fell. The fox was scared and so he did the only thing he could do… he went… he went… and ate a bowl of ramen!'

'Idiot.' Sasuke muttered.

'That bowl of ramen was the last he ate… because whilst the house was falling, the fox jumped out and ran free, but did not have enough money to buy any essentials like ramen. Because of this, in his new school, he was called Ramen to rub it in. That was his new nickname… ramen.' Naruto whimpered.

Sakura and Sasuke found themselves staring at Naruto with bewilderment.

'I can tell you a better story.' A muffled voice whispered in the darkness.

'Eh? What was that?' Sakura yelped.

'I don't know.' Sasuke uttered, drawing a kunai. 'Stay on your guard.'

'I won't let you take the action!' Naruto argued, standing up. He pointed into a random spot in the inky black. 'You don't scare me! Come out and face me!'

'Such silly, ignorant children. So loud, so proud, yet so weak.'

'Come and face me!'

'Well, let me tell you a story first.'

Naruto stood, his eyes trying to search in the deep entanglement of the woods, finding nothing but darkness hidden throughout. He looked at the other two, Sakura shaking with fear and Sasuke, alert and awake, looking from side to side for dangers. 'Show yourself!' Naruto barked into the air. 'Face us! We're enough to beat you!'

'There was a story about three little children.'

'Shut up!' Naruto yelled, holding up a kunai. He wished he could see through this darkness, but he couldn't.

'They were lost, alone in the woods with nothing to do. Everywhere they looked, there was darkness. What they didn't know was that there was an old curse on the exact area you stand on…' The voice continued.

The three suddenly jumped up and moved away from the spot.

'We're not scared!' Sakura drew a kunai.

The three made a formation, back to back and in a triangle.

'Yes, a curse. And the curse was that whoever stayed here at this time of night would die the next day. For this was the burial site of a man who was shunned from his family. He was told to run away, told to go away, told to stay away. He was upset, that he made this curse in this area, his last night before he died. And you all… are standing… on the earth above his body.'

Sakura squirmed and recoiled slightly. She could hear her heartbeat quicken and the beads of sweat slide and slip down her cheeks. Her green eyes looked only into darkness, and above all, she could almost hear that voice repeating those words. _Die the next day… die… next day…_

'Sakura, keep on your guard.' Sasuke muttered.

Sakura nodded reluctantly, and lifted her kunai once more.

'Ha! What a joke! Why would a guy leave a curse? Why did he die?' Naruto shouted.

'Because he made the curse, but didn't realise that he would also be affected. I thought you would've understood that.'

Naruto growled.

'But it is thought that they would see the face of his ghost before… leaving. So… I shall now appear… to you… I am… I am…'

Sakura couldn't keep her grip on her weapon because of the sweat.


	3. Creepy Truth?

'I am… here for you!'

Naruto's eyes widened as he saw a white light emerge from the black.

'Stand back!' Sasuke warned as he stepped forward and began to throw shuriken at the being. But it didn't work.

'Are we dead?' Sakura asked, her eyes widening at the light.

'And then… they would die.' The figure marched toward them solemnly, carrying a white light. 'BOO!' It shouted.

The three jumped at the sudden shout as they moved an inch back.

A white blanket was removed from the head of the figure, and standing where it was, was…

'Kakashi-sensei!' Sakura screamed.

'Yo!' Kakashi greeted cheerily. 'A nice young lady asked me for directions, so…'

'Kakashi-sensei!' Naruto yelled, throwing a stick at his teacher. 'You're really late! And you tried to scare us? Hmph. I wasn't scared at all.'

'Yeah, it was meant to be scarier I suppose…' Kakashi leaned his head back and looked up. 'It really is dark up here, so nice environment for telling ghost stories, eh?'

'You made that story up?' Sakura asked.

'Yeah, you could say that.'

Sakura frowned and turned away. She felt tricked and that her fears were for nothing.

'But you should have seen yourselves, so scared.' Kakashi swung his lantern from side to side. He packed his orange book away. 'Now, we should probably head back. It looks like he isn't coming.'

'Who, Kakashi-sensei?'

'A man said to meet him here. He wanted us to defend and protect him whilst he went for a walk around this area.'

'Well, where is he?' Naruto asked impatiently.

'I don't know. It's a bit late now. We should go back.' Kakashi announced. 'He said he'd be here before sunset, but he didn't keep his end of the deal, so…'

'So the man never showed.'

Sasuke could sense a movement behind him, but when he turned, nothing was there. The wind just moved swiftly through the deep vegetation, letting out a howl as it moved. 'Yeah.'

**-The End-**


End file.
